Mardale Head To Small Water Tarn
It was the summer of 2021 when I last visited Mardale, this was to see the drowned village, literally washed away when the valley was dammed and the existing Hawes Water lake expanded to become the Haweswater reservoir we know today. Shortly afterwards, I purchased a couple of old glass slides, purportedly taken around the area, prior to the flooding. One was a view of the Dun Bull Hotel in its mountainous surroundings, the other was a shot of a young woman sat on a rock beside a tarn. The tarn looked familiar and I quickly identified it as Small Water Tarn, located high in the hills above the drowned village.
It turns out that I visited the tarn in 2016, long before seeing the period photograph and have been meaning to return ever since. Last Sunday, feeling the need to get out of the house after a week of terrible weather, I decided I'd drive up to Mardale Head and revisit the tarn.
Having tentatively taken out my bigger cameras on short walks over the past couple of weeks, I decided if I was going to do this, I'd do it properly and took along the GFX100S. Ideally I'd have taken my full complement of lenses, but when I tested that, the bag would have been way too heavy, so instead I settled for the 32-64 and 45-100, giving me an effective range of 25-80mm(ish). I also took along my TC7 tripod as I generally figure that you need rigid support to see the 102 megapixel advantage of the GFX over the 45 megapixel Z8. And so, heavily overburdened, I set off from Mardale Head and headed up into the hills.
Early Rising
This was taken at an early point on the path, where it's gently rising below Harter Fell. The lake in the distance is Haweswater.
A Splash of Colour
I think we're on the cusp of Heather Season here in the UK as the colour is really starting to come in now.
The Winding Path
I'm slowly making my way along the path, although that lake doesn't look to be getting any smaller. Bloody perspective.
The Original Image
So, this is the glass slide that prompted me to revisit the tarn and see if I could find the original composition. Did I succeed?
My Attempt
No, not really. The big rock is there just the same, but I've got the alignment wrong with the hills behind. I think the camera needs to be off to the right, set further back and then zoomed in more. The model's a bit rubbish too. Taking this image was a bit challenging, mainly because the GFX100S only has a choice of 2 second or 10 second timers, the latter of which really was barely enough time to allow me to run over to the rock and get positioned on it. Maybe before the heart problems I'd have been able to sprint over there a bit quicker, but with my current level of fitness it was a challenge.
And In Colour Too
A shot of the tarn and its surrounding crags in colour, I popped an ND64 filter on top of the CPL to get a 4 second exposure here to try to smooth out the ripples a bit and reveal the rocks beneath the water. On the full res image you can make out The Nan Bield Pass as it weaves its way up between the crags in the centre of the image.
The Start of Small Water Beck
This is where the stream exits the tarn and begins its exciting journey down the fellside to feed into Haweswater.
Small Water Beck
Another shot of the beck, this time including its eventual destination, although technically, one of its many eventual destinations is the cold water tap in my kitchen as Haweswater, along with Thirlmere supplies the drinking water here in Lancashire by way of the Thirlmere Aqueduct.
Perilous Positioning
I do like a good overhanging tree.
The Return Route
Unsurprisingly the hike back down was much quicker and easier than the one going up, with the 2.6 mile round trip taking approximately 5:30, which is super slow, but looking at my GPS log, most of it was spent stopped taking photos (I came back with about 360 shots!). As I took my time I never felt overly exhausted despite this being quite a steep 1000ft ascent in just more than a mile. I think with a smaller kit (say the Z8, one lens and no tripod) I could probably make it to the top of Nan Bield too without too much difficulty.
Riggindale
Having spent all afternoon in overcast conditions, it's no surprise that as I was driving away from Mardale Head the clouds broke and the scene was lit with beautiful light. Fortunately, I managed to find a spot to pull over and jumped out with the camera. to take this (and several similar) shot. It's kind of ironic that I spent all day lugging a heavy kit including a tripod up to the tarn, only to get (what I think are) the best pictures of the day leaning on a wall about 20ft away from my car.
Harter Fell
As I was taking the shots of Riggindale, I noticed a sliver of light falling on Harter Fell, so I turned my camera in that direction and rattled off a couple of shots.
Unwittingly (looking at the ridge line), I'm in a similar location to where this other glass slide was taken from. This is showing the Dun Bull Hotel bottom left, whose foundations now reside beneath the reservoir, although interestingly, the tennis court to the right of it can still be seen when the water is low enough.
Villages may come and go, but in relative terms at least, the mountains are eternal.
